MAKE AN OFFER - new payment process - heads up

[sheba-knows-best]

Hi

I just went to make an offer for an item and had to pay for it (using paypal and generating a code) PRIOR to the offer being accepted. If the offer is accepted - from what I could tell - I have already paid and there is nothing else for me to do. 

I don't think this is being rolled out to me as a 'problem account' as I have never not bought an item I have made an offer on (when the offer has been accepted). Possibly they are using me as a guinea pig because I buy a lot.

I applaud ebay trying to make buyers take 'making an offer' seriously. Get rid of the non-payers. On the other hand, I think it will put some people off making an offer for a while. Certainly, I was wary of a scam and shut down and re-opened before deciding to make the offer anyway.

Interesting stuff. New to me. Has anyone else seen this yet? Anyone else had experiences?

[bennotbill]

This has been around for a while now.

If you look on your selling account, selling preferences , managing who can buy from you............

You should see....................

It's drawn some complaints as the money is reserved/pending for a while until the offer passes or is accepted. This means those that make several high priced offers could find themselves with not enough funds to pay bills.

[sheba-knows-best]

Ah... I hadn't seen that. Thank you. That is interesting. So it is completely in the hands of the seller? I won't be implementing it for a while I don't think.

I would be interested to hear experiences from people who have implemented it.

[ojewellery]

This was announced at the US 21 seller conference. Particularly useful for auctions that buyers need to preauthorise payment when bidding so payment gets taken should they win.

For auctions I can see it being a big bonus for sellers not having to send payment reminder nders and wait numerous days before being able to relist.  Particularly at peek times if year when a few weeks of being messed around on a high value item can mean you miss a peek sale.

I hadn't thought about it in the context of make an offer and have rarely had issue with offer makers not paying.  All food for thought but glad it's happening.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@ojewellery wrote:

I hadn't thought about it in the context of make an offer and have rarely had issue with offer makers not paying.  All food for thought but glad it's happening.

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I'm glad the option is there. But I do NOT want it forced onto my selling account at this point. Make an offer is a massively useful tool for me. Even when I use coupons and markdowns, I rarely get sales; I just 'collect buyers' who tend to offer when they are kicking themselves because they missed 'the deal'.

[ojewellery]

If your offer makers are committed, the adding payment details shouldn't phase them.  I've just been reflecting and think this would make me feel quite positive and committed that the transaction will likely happen

[bennotbill]

Yes perhaps it would be good if this was also on auctions. But as Sheba wondered is it some sort of scam and a few would be buyers have posted here saying just that. So it may put off many who think that, and some others worry about the security aspect.

I wonder if the pending duration was sorted or even possible to sort. As said if the funds were coming from your bank account the amount offered was shown as reserved/pending and some complained that even after their offer was declined if would still say pending for a few days. Which obviously could cause some problems when making a number of high offers.

[ojewellery]

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@bennotbill wrote:

...if the funds were coming from your bank account the amount offered was shown as reserved/pending ....Which obviously could cause some problems when making a number of high offers.

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From the make an offer stance buyers should be able to honour all accepted offers.

When it was originally talked about pre authorisations weren't mentioned (from my memory).  I wonder if these could be made a nominal  amount to verify payment method rather than full transaction amount.

Some banks take several business days to relinquish reserves a nightmare around Christmas, Easter etc.

[bravergrace]

The "must pay on acceptance" has one possible drawback for some sellers - and buyers.

Once an item is paid for, the "dispatch by" clock starts.

So you may lose out on multiple purchases, especially if you offer same-day dispatch, or if the buyer is also bidding on auctions with a day or two to run.  There will be no option for combined postage, which can be a big factor particularly with overseas sales. 

Some of my most popular items cost about £12 for overseas postage, but that price will cover up to a dozen items.   It is best for me and the buyer to have the option to combine postage over the course of a few days.

[ett1954]

Spot on @bravergrace 

I was thinking the same.  Many of my auction buyers are regular buyers and want their invoices combined.  This will prevent combined invoices.

Interesting, this feature will however generate more fees in such instances both will the 30p transaction fee on each item and of course all those individual postage fees.

This would put many of my buyers off bidding or at the best reduce the amount they are willing to spend due to the increased postage costs.

I believe it is another instance of eBay shooting themselves in the foot in their desperation to garner even more fees from each transaction.  Instead it will drive some buyers away from the site.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@bravergrace wrote:

The "must pay on acceptance" has one possible drawback for some sellers - and buyers.

Once an item is paid for, the "dispatch by" clock starts.

So you may lose out on multiple purchases, especially if you offer same-day dispatch, or if the buyer is also bidding on auctions with a day or two to run.  There will be no option for combined postage, which can be a big factor particularly with overseas sales. 

Some of my most popular items cost about £12 for overseas postage, but that price will cover up to a dozen items.   It is best for me and the buyer to have the option to combine postage over the course of a few days.

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Combined postage crossed my mind too.

The difficulties with combined postage when using lots of ebay tools - and resulting issues with buyers - is why I started offering free postage.

In fact I always found that buyers would invariably choose £24.99 + £3.50 postage vs £27 + free postage. When talking with friends this also proves true - they invariably tell me their 'bargain' price without mentioning whatever postage they paid.

So it is with huge regret that I offer free postage but it stops agro with buyers and - as I say - makes the tools easier to use.

[bravergrace]

I've recently moved away from offering free P&P.

I think the tendency you mention - to discount added P&P when considering the "cost" of an item - is exacerbated by eBay's haphazard attitude to it. 

Sometimes when I'm looking at "other items" or "other sponsored items", eBay shows me the postage, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it is inconsistent within the same list.  This makes it time-consuming and bothersome for buyers compare item prices in any meaningful way.

But the whole question of discounts is bothersome on eBay.  I'm currently dealing with an international buyer who is worried because he doesn't think he got a postage discount on some purchases he made many months ago.  He probably got combined postage rather than a discount - unless he purchased the items separately or on separate eBay accounts, or had them sent to different addresses.

I'm considering offering him a discount on the item price for multiple purchases - but, human nature being what it is, he may still feel cheated if he doesn't get a "postage discount".

[sheba-knows-best]

I have still had no counter, decline or acceptance on my offer. Not a problem for me, but if I were a normal buyer and desperate to get my winter coat sorted I would be pretty irritated.

Seems to me, maybe, that the 'pay before acceptance' should only be allowed if the seller has auto decline/accept on - so that the buyer gets an immediate answer. 

[ojewellery]

I'm not always patient enough to use the make an offer feature.  I'd love to be able to put a time stamp on offers - so sometimes it might be a few hours other times a day or until 9am the next morning.  I think that would be more comfortable with adding payment details.

I've been pondering on the adding extra things to a purchase before dispatch for a while. I sometimes find in messaging with buyers they have other items they're interested in and I can use make an offer for them to buy to add into the same parcel - always the risk they don't checkout until after I've had to send the first purchased item.

It'd be lovely to have a form of offer or banner advertising that said add this relevant item to your purchase for only 'x' more.  Another form of send buyer an offer which would be send add on offers, where we save additional postage costs and they add extra basket items to be combined in same package.  It'd need a time stamp to allow packing time within the original item purchase window.  Maybe a little complex when there are some quite basic functionality things we'd like to see resolved.

[bzmotman]

Just checked mine and the box is unticked. Clicked on the i and it tells me"......Currently it only impacts a select group of buyers". So it sounds like @sheba-knows-best is part of that select group.

I can see the advantages for single high value items, its similar to what physical auctions do, but no use for low value items where multiple sales are combined into 1 invoice.

[mohair-terrier]

I'm fuming about this. This is a terrible move imposed on buyers. And it has put me right off.

As an ebayer for over 15 years, having always paid for every item straight away, this is a kick in the teeth.

Apparently, after speaking with CS at length, this assinine policy is now across the entire site - in other words, if you make an offer, any offer (or counter-offer) you've got to add your credit card details, otherwise you are blocked, there is some small print at the bottom of the pop-up box that says you are agreeing (by default) to Ebay 'saving' your details for this and all future purchases and there is no opt-out.  This is absolutely reprehensible.

I have a deliberate policy of not saving card details anywhere for maximam security.  Because it isn't safe to have your details sitting on their servers.

Think about the number of organisations and companies that have been hacked recently, and what happens when your details get in to the wrong hands - absolutely nothing.  There is only one party benefitting from this new policy, and it is Ebay.

As per usual, the long-standing, long-suffering ultra-honest buyers who always pay on time, get penalised for the conduct of a few morons.  And Ebay get to use the excuse of the "non-payers" to bully us in to capitulating.

They said to me "it will give you a faster buying experience", no thanks, I'd rather have a safe experience and not be cr*pping myself about where my details are ending up.

[lord_and_lady_m]

i'm quite sure also, that if data did get out, ebay would hold you the seller repsonsible, because it seems that's how they work on everything.

[bennotbill]

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@mohair-terrier wrote:

I have a deliberate policy of not saving card details anywhere for maximam security.  Because it isn't safe to have your details sitting on their servers.

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Apparently you can delete your card details if you wish. Though some have said it's not easy to find.

[mohair-terrier]

Thanks for the advice, I'm aware of that. It is one possible long-winded solution. But for me this is a real headache because it means going back & forth constantly between different computers, as my main one is not secure enough. If sellers are not responding to offers quickly, it just puts me in the same risky position with my details sat on Ebay's servers again for days potentially, before I can delete the details again.

I'm sure it's stressful and horrible for sellers when they get a non-paying idiot, but this is not the solution and I can envisage it causing all sorts of hardships for buyers.

[bennotbill]

Yes how hard can it be to add a tick box to save, like many other more customer friendly sites.